The cornerstone of the enhanced NCPD program is a Personal Professional Portfolio, an ongoing record of your goals, your plans for continued learning, and your achievements. It is a way to formally document what you have already been doing in your pursuit of lifelong learning.

Your professional portfolio will reflect your interests and your priorities. At a minimum it should contain:

• An up-to-date résumé
• A list of your goals and your plans for meeting them
• A log of your learning activities
• Records or certificates from formal courses or workshops you have attended.

It can also hold articles you have written, lectures you have delivered, performance appraisals from your employer, feedback from students, a record of your volunteer activities, letters of thanks you receive for professional service, a CSRT transcript, and anything else that paints a picture of your professional life.

First, think about everything you do in your practice. What do your patients, colleagues and your profession expect of you? What do you expect of yourself? You might want to refer to your job description, the CSRT Standards of Practice or your provincial/territorial guidelines to help you identify everything you do.

Next, think about what you do best and what you could improve. There are several ways to approach this self- assessment. To get the most complete picture, choose more than one. For example:

• Analyse the way you handled a positive or negative incident in your practice
• Review a recent performance appraisal
• Consider views of colleagues and patients
• Use the CSRT Competency Evaluation Templates and other audit tools to assess whether you are meeting the current standard of practice.

Look at the gaps between the professional expectations you identified in Step One and your current knowledge, skills and abilities. You will most likely find some gaps ¾ in our rapidly changing work world there is always something to learn whether it is a new therapy, a new computer program, or better communication skills.

Next, set priorities. What is most pressing to learn? What most interests you? What will most benefit your practice and your patients? Rank your choices. A word of advice: Set realistic goals and timelines. Plunging into study without clear priorities or reasonable deadlines can end in learning overload and frustration.

Once you have carefully thought about what you intend to learn, think about the most effective way to learn. Can you learn through self-study? Would it be better to learn from a colleague? Can you take advantage of clinical guidelines or examples of best practices? Should you take a formal course? Aim to strike a balance between work-based learning, formal courses, and self-directed learning.

Finally, decide how you will measure success. A learning plan, like the sample below, is a simple and systematic way to organize and record your professional development.

The way you record and evaluate what you have learned is up to you. You may prefer to keep records in a binder, a notebook, or on your computer. Blank Learning Plans and Learning Logs can be downloaded from the CSRT web site, www.csrt.com, or ordered from the Canadian Society of Respiratory Therapists. Whatever method you choose, respect patient confidentiality and do not identify patients by name in your records. To protect your own privacy you might also consider dividing your portfolio into two sections – one for your own use and one to submit for audit purposes if required in your jurisdiction.

A Learning Log (below) is a simple way to keep a running account of what you learned, when and why your learned it, how you achieved your goal, and how your knowledge will change your practice.

The CSRT provides a number of resources to help you assess your skills and knowledge and to plan and document your continuing professional development.

This collection of 67 check lists (templates) is linked to the CSRT Occupational Profile. Each template details the skills and knowledge required to perform a specific clinical, non-clinical or clinically-related procedure (see page 9 for the list of templates included in the collection). If you are using the templates to assess your competence we recommend that you have an instructor or trusted colleague check items on the list as you perform the skill. Copies of the CSRT Competency Templates are available from the CSRT office for $45 (members)/$60 (non-members).

Similar to the CSRT Competency Evaluation Templates, audit tools are designed to evaluate your skills in a clinical setting. These skill checklists are based on the American Association for Respiratory Care Clinical Practice Guidelines. You choose a single tool or a combination of tools as a way to evaluate a particular aspect of your practice. See page 11 for the list of audit tools. A nominal fee is required to cover printing and mailing.

This booklet contains several blank NCPD Learning Plans and NCPD Learning Logs.Additional copies are available from the CSRT office at (800) 267-3422 and from the CSRT web site www.csrt.com.

Download a NCPD Learning log in Adobe PDF format.

To receive an annual transcript of your learning credits, submit a copy of your CSRT Continuing Professional Learning Log(s) to the National Committee for Professional Development (NCPD) 1785 Alta Vista Drive Suite 102, Ottawa Ontario, K1G 3Y6. Please keep one copy in your Professional Portfolio.